Free Woman, you will always cherish the sea!

Grown-up stuff; becoming a morning workout person

One of the healthiest ways to spend our free time onboard would be going to the gym. There is a designated crew gym which by the way is really well equipped. The only downside to it, for me at least, is that it’s tiny. So personally, I prefer to use the guest gym when, of course, it’s not that crowded. Ever since I started working on ships I have always worked out either noon or evening time. I love to sleep in the morning but in the last years I’ve noticed, there are others who love to sleep in even more than I do. My sister and my mum are my best example.

Anyway, so here I was this morning, 7:00am trying to wake up on a treadmill while watching the news at the gym. I mean, full grownup stuff and my question would be: when the h.. did this happen?

Surprisingly this has been a really good workout although I bumped into a few corners and walls before getting there but it was good! I had lots of energy during the day and I kept to my regular schedule only this time, with more free time in the evening which was nice.

But although starting to workout in the morning was not the difficult part, keeping at it for the next days/ weeks is my real challenge. So I’ve decided to write this post over a period of 3 days (and 3 morning workouts) to see how I really feel about this new morning routine.

Here’s how DAY 1 went: alarm was set for 6:40am, snoozed for 5 minutes only, got dressed, had a shot of espresso and a quick look over my e-mails to see if anything is urgent and off to the gym. Treadmill, rowing, I was starting to feel hungry but the caffeine kicked in and managed to do some burpees and other exercises until 7:40am when I had to leave and get ready for work. I got lots of questions this morning on how come I am so full of energy. What surprised me is that after breakfast around 8 something I did not feel the need for another coffee when I usually have my second one by 9am. So that was new! Around 4:00pm I started to get a bit tired but snapped out of it pretty fast. Overall, day 1 was a success. I got my gym equipment ready for tomorrow morning so let’s see how that goes.

UPDATE Day 2: alarm set for 6:30am, snoozed for 15 min so I am back to 6:45am wake up time. Today was difficult to wake up but to my surprise, I had more energy than the day before. Is all about getting started. The workout was very good but short. I wanted to stay more. I need to get up earlier.

UPDATE Day 3: I had some work planned at 7:15am and decided to go to the gym only after my scheduled work. It didn’t go as planned. At 6:07am my eyes were wide open (and it was still dark outside) so I was like “ok fine, let’s do this” and headed to the gym. I opted for yoga today and I got to do my Sun Salutation pose right at the moment when the sun was rising. It was beautiful, relaxing and rewarding.

To conclude, I like this morning workout routine. I am full of energy during the day and don’t feel the need to nap in the afternoon. Planning to keep at it from now on but I am also planning to have days where I can snooze as much as I want. Not giving that up.